Case Number 17506: Small Claims Court

HAUNTED HISTORIES COLLECTION

The Charge

The world's scariest stories in one spine-chilling set.

The Case

The only thing spine-chilling about this collection is that it demonstrates
how spectacularly the History Channel has deteriorated. Consisting of a bunch of
shows vaguely united under the theme of horror stories, most of the material
collected here is either monotonous or ridiculous, with only a few bits and
pieces here and there of actual historical content. Also, forget about scary;
you'll either pass out from boredom or turn off the DVD player in disgust before
you're in any danger of being scared from most of the junk compiled here. Anyone
who takes this box home for Halloween expecting a good scary time will be sadly
disappointed.

Here are the programs compiled on twenty discs:

* "Hauntings" People tell stories of being haunted by
ghosts.

* "The Haunted History of Halloween" A look at how Celtic
rituals merged with Catholic teachings to make a beloved holiday.

* "Poltergeists" Ghosts who interact with the physical world
are found in various places.

* "Salem Witch Trials" In 1692, the farming community of
Salem, Massachusetts, lives through a month of terror.

* "Vampire Secrets" The real stories of murder and bloodlust
that inspired Bram Stoker to write his 1897 novel Dracula.

* "Haunted Houses" Ghosts are said to haunt various
historical locations to this day.

Each episode gets its own disc, which in and of itself is immensely
frustrating. Since most of the shows here barely last 45 minutes, that's a huge
waste of space for no good reason. Constantly having to change discs over and
over again makes this set a chore to use, even if the content was all flawless.
It would have been smarter for History to put the related shows (the ones on
voodoo, for instance), all on one disc to save space.

Even if the set was packaged more carefully, though, it would still be of
minimal value. The shows presented are generally the worst kind of speculative
fluff. Most fall into the same general formula: are
vampires/ghosts/exorcisms/zombies real? People who claim to have experienced or
seen one of those choices assert "yes" while scientists on both sides
of the issue debate. Since there are no available pictures or film clips of
actual vampires/ghosts/exorcisms/zombies, all of these shows rely on hopelessly
silly reenactments. Then, after endless mind-numbing interviews with scientists
who squabble over whether or not vampires/ghosts/exorcisms/zombies exist, no
conclusions are reached at all. That's the formula used on virtually every show
here, and it gets repetitive, especially when there are so many shows devoted to
so few topics. How much about voodoo rituals do you really need to learn? How
many stories of people hearing bumps in the night can you possibly take? Not
only are these shows mostly identical, regardless of location or subject matter,
but they aren't even interesting visually, not with all the hokey reenactments
and incessant shots of scientists walking and reading.

The best parts are, not surprisingly, the ones with actual historical
content. The shows on the Salem Witch Hunt give some fascinating details on how
and why the witch hunts began and ended, even if some of the reenactments are
rather cheesy. "Exorcising the Devil" does give a brief but
interesting explanation on how Zoroastrianism helped define the Christian
concept of monotheism. "Vampire Secrets" does have a few nuggets about
the real historical influences that led Bram Stoker to create Dracula. These
tidbits, unfortunately, are few and far between, and even these programs are not
immune to the endless "Yes, they're real!/No, they're not!" debates.
It would probably be better to pick up the individual DVDs for these shows
separately, considering this massive box carries a list price of $79.95.

Technical specs are typical History: full-screen transfer (with a few
programs in non-anamorphic 1.78:1) and Dolby stereo mix, both adequate. There
are no extras.

The Verdict

Guilty of being too repetitive, too packed with filler, and too clumsily
assembled.